Louann+Bergen

For me the main idea I have used is trying to pick out the key ideas of what students should learn. I often get caught up in the details. For next year I would approach my planning with the idea... "If we took this information out of history - would it make a real change?? If it does, that would be the content I would want my students to learn."

When we had the "teepee" at our school, we had borrowed a resource kit that contained many Aboriginal items. Small groups of students went into the teepee and viewed the artifacts. They were asked the question, "Does this affect life today? How?" So for example the mocassins students said ideas such as... "People still use them today." "We have boot, not mocassins, but we still protect our feet from the cold."